Personal video recorders as used by security and law enforcement personnel, hereafter referred to as body cameras, face many challenges in practical use. Easily portable sources of power, such as batteries, are limited in capacity and adversely impact the duration of body-camera operation. Storage media are limited in capacity and constrain the amount of video information that may be recorded. When the cameras do operate and can store their video data, it can be challenging to identify the portion of video information relevant to a specific event or incident.
Serious incidents for security and law enforcement personnel often involve use or anticipated use of a firearm.
Systems involving linking firearms and video recording have been contemplated—for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 9,140,509 to Sullivan et al., a gun-mounted “electronic evidence-collecting device”—e.g., a camera—is activated by the removal of the gun from its holster. Specifically, a light sensor mounted on the gun is covered when the gun is holstered, and when the gun is removed from its holster, the light sensor receives light and initiates the collection of gun-related data from sensors on the gun, and the sensed, gun-related data is forwarded to a portable device (e.g., a smartphone), which may then automatically call the user's partner and/or the central station to request assistance and backup. However, Sullivan's system has drawbacks—for example, it only contemplates activating data recording in response to unholstering as measured by a light sensor, and the only types of sensors it discloses are a holster sensor, a video camera, a microphone, a direction finder, a clock, and a GPS component. Additionally, Sullivan's system does not contemplate data sensing and recording devices that are not mounted on a handgun, or enabling real-time, granular event and location-based remote monitoring by integrating with a distributed system. The Sullivan system further does not contemplate metadata, or associating metadata with recorded video, as included in certain embodiments of the invention described below.
There is a need for devices and systems that facilitate reducing unnecessary power consumption (e.g., turning off or powering down the camera when needed), and reducing the amount of irrelevant or unnecessary video data to be stored and analyzed, as well as services that enable granular, real-time monitoring of firearm-related activity by a local team as well as by a remote command center. When video is generated, there is a need for facilitating review and analysis of recorded video from cameras that may concern firearm-related activity. Disclosed herein are embodiments of an invention that address those needs.
Although fundamentally mechanical in their operation, modern firearms increasingly make use of electronic circuitry. Sometimes these electronics are embedded in the firearm itself, and other times they are found in accessories attached to the firearm; examples include tactical lights and lasers, electronic scopes, and onboard computer and sensor arrays. With such electronics may come the need for electrical power, most commonly delivered by rechargeable or replaceable batteries.
The need to recharge or replace such batteries imposes compromises on the design of said electronic accessories. These design compromises introduce drawbacks—for example, allowances must be made to facilitate access to the battery or means of charging (e.g., either by removing the accessory from the firearm entirely, removing the battery from the accessory, or connecting a charging cable to the accessory). Moreover, providing readily accessible charging sockets and/or battery compartments can compromise an accessory's resistance to water, dust, and debris. Additionally, frequent removal and reattachment of the accessory to the firearm is inconvenient and a source of increased wear and fragility.
There is a need for devices and systems that facilitate charging of a wide variety of firearm electronics that avoid or minimize these drawbacks. Disclosed herein are embodiments of an invention that address those needs.
Serious incidents for security and law enforcement personnel often involve use or anticipated use of a firearm, which may be initiated by an operator removing a firearm or other implement from a mount (e.g., a holster), and thus it may be helpful to enable real-time communication of such events. The ability to communicate, in real-time, whether an operator has drawn the operator's weapon or other implements has many important applications. For example, real-time communication of an unholstering event may help to keep a command center or supervisor apprised of the status of activities in the field. Such communication may also be useful for a team of operators to stay on top of a coordinated operation, particularly in situations where the team members are unable to speak (e.g., they may be wearing gas masks, staying hidden, or are out-of-earshot) or unable to directly observe what other team members are doing.
Systems involving detecting unholstering have been contemplated—for example, U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2015/0256990 A1 to Vilrokx et al., describes a system for processing incoming messages from a “smart holster.” The smart holster detects unholstering of a weapon using a pressure sensor (or alternatively, a contact switch). A predictive model is used to process the incoming wireless signals to generate real-time alerts, which alerts are in turn sent to the wireless-enabled holster. The system includes a rule server configured to query a database to retrieve one or more rules, and to apply the one or more rules over the incoming wireless signals. However, this system has drawbacks—for example, it doesn't teach or suggest techniques for detecting unholstering other than use of a pressure sensor or a contact switch. Additionally, it does not suggest coordination of sensor devices using a hub device, such as a mobile device, or local communication between sensor devices worn by separate operators, or pre-loading rules for controlling alerting and other outcomes at the smart holster or a hub device, which would permit faster reaction time and would allow a team to share communications even in the absence of a communication/data connection to a remote server or command center.
Drawbacks that are particularly relevant to contact-related unholstering detection techniques relate to the fact that contact-related sensors as taught in Vilrokx et al. would typically be positioned inside the holster (such as the pressure sensor 114(2)) or at a latch of the holster (such as contact switch sensor 114(3)). This design may have dangerous consequences: If dislodged or damaged, the components of the mechanism could cause items, parts, or debris within the holster to impede drawing a firearm, or possibly enter a trigger guard area, leading to a discharge event.
Detecting and interpreting of the status of weapons, and associated equipment, as might be found on the belt or in the vehicle of a police officer or security guard or soldier, presents unique challenges which this invention addresses. For example, embodiments of the invention described below enable real-time monitoring of drawing a weapon or other mounted implement both locally by a team, as well as remotely, by, for example, a command center. Embodiments of the invention additionally provide for holster sensor devices that do not interfere with a holster or require permanent modification of a holster to function, to facilitate installation and compatibility with existing equipment.
In some circumstances, a firearm has been discharged, but the person who operated the firearm is unknown. For example, an identified firearm may have been used to injure a person or to cause property damage, but there are no witnesses to the event. In some cases, a person may be accused of firing the weapon, but the accused person disputes this. In such circumstances, it would be advantageous to have a way to identify whether a candidate operator is likely to have fired the weapon, or to exclude the candidate operator.
There is a need for devices and systems, including firearm telematics sensor devices, that facilitate such an identification. Disclosed herein are embodiments of an invention that address those needs.
Firearm safety is a topic of political and societal debate in the United States. Prior efforts to improve the safety of handheld firearms have included devices such as manual safeties, decockers, drop safeties, safety notches, firing pin blocks, hammer blocks, magazine disconnects, trigger guards, fingerprint sensors, loaded chamber indicators and even radio controlled proximity activation devices which permit operation of the firearm only when it is within range of a fob or similar device. While these devices offer varying degrees of physical safety, none are concerned with defining an area within and for which a firearm may be enabled or disabled from operation or with notifying an owner of an attempt to access, move or operate the owner's firearm. Further, no existing solutions communicatively couple a firearm to its owner via a wireless telecommunications network and a machine-to-machine (“M2M”) component located within the firearm so as to control a firearm safety mechanism or its equivalent. Nor do any existing solutions establish a network-based (e.g., cloud-based) rule-set through which a firearm owner can establish and/or customize firearm control variables, such as a default trigger safety status. Further, no existing solutions enable a firearm owner to be provided with location, movement, and/or similar information regarding the location and/or status of the firearm (e.g., via a wireless communication network) and further enable the owner to disable the firearm via a user interface of a wireless device (e.g., mobile phone) applet.